Robert Schumann (1810 – 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career as a virtuoso pianist. His teacher, Friedrich Wieck, a German pianist, had assured him that he could become the finest pianist in Europe, but a hand injury ended this dream. Schumann then focused his musical energies on composing. In 1840, Schumann married Friedrich Wieck's daughter Clara Wieck, after a long and acrimonious legal battle with Friedrich, who opposed the marriage. A lifelong partnership in music began, as Clara herself was an established pianist and music prodigy. Clara and Robert also developed a close relationship with German composer Johannes Brahms.

Until 1840, Schumann wrote exclusively for the piano. Later, he composed piano and orchestral works, and many Lieder (songs for voice and piano). He composed four symphonies, one opera, and other orchestral, choral, and chamber works. His best-known works include Carnaval, Symphonic Studies, Kinderszenen, Kreisleriana, and the Fantasie in C. Schumann was known for infusing his music with characters through motifs, as well as references to works of literature. These characters bled into his editorial writing in the Neue Zeitschrift für Musik (New Journal for Music), a Leipzig-based publication that he co-founded.

Schumann suffered from a mental disorder that first manifested in 1833 as a severe melancholic depressive episode—which recurred several times alternating with phases of "exaltation" and increasingly also delusional ideas of being poisoned or threatened with metallic items. What is now thought to have been a combination of bipolar disorder and perhaps mercury poisoning led to "manic" and "depressive" periods in Schumann's compositional productivity. After a suicide attempt in 1854, Schumann was admitted at his own request to a mental asylum in Endenich (now in Bonn). Diagnosed with psychotic melancholia, he died of pneumonia two years later at the age of 46, without recovering from his mental illness.

“Jemand” ("Someone") Op. 25 No. 4, is an immediate juxtaposition to “Der Nussbaum” by implying a limited narrative progression, and typifies the conflicting sentiments presented in this first book. Schumann starts the song in E minor to express the young girl bewailing her separation from her loved one. He achieves this through using a simple tune over detached staccato chords. Also, whenever “jemand” (“someone”) appears in the vocal line it is consistently set in a descending pattern of seconds. This adds to the feeling of despair and makes the mention of the departed “someone” seem to be more of a sigh than a statement. The key of E minor is also a small nod to the folkloric style of the poetry of Burns, though the setting eventually becomes declamatory in nature. It distantly hints at parallel strophes and the halting, uneven declamation mixes with the shifting accompaniment and melody, which is Schumann’s response to Burns’s persona. Schumann modulates to the parallel major in measure 26 and presents us with a chromatically altered Ave Maria quote in mm 8-9. A minor third replaces the major third of the original to match the gloom of the text. Finally, in order to have both block and fluid accompanimental styles present, there is a change in meter to 6/8 in measure 46 to allow the postlude to have the same character as both “Widmung” and “Der Nussbaum.

Source: Wikipedia (https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/schumann-jemand)

Although originally composed for Voice and Piano, I created this Interpretation of "Jemand" (Someone Op. 25 No. 4) for Oboe & Strings (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).